Ticks belong to the arachnid family
What is a tick?
Did you know that ticks are not insects?
Ticks are actually arachnids, more specifically spiders.
If you look closely at a tick, it somehow resembles a spider with four pairs of legs, only they lack antennae.
Ticks are like vampires, they love blood and dislike the sun. They have no wings, cannot fly or jump. Instead, they move slowly through low bushes or grass to find a host. Then they attach themselves with their hind legs and stretch out their front legs - to latch onto an animal or a passing human. Sometimes they just wait to fall onto a future host passing by.
There are hundreds of species of ticks, but for us, the important divisions are into soft and hard. The difference is simple - soft ticks have soft bodies, while hard ticks have very tough and strong skin - which makes them much harder to kill. Hard ticks (common ones) are the most numerous in our environment, carry most of the infections that humans can get, and that’s why we will talk about them.
Ticks have 8 legs that serve as hooks and allow them to easily attach to a host - a human, a pet, or other small animals. What is alarming is that while feeding on blood, ticks can enlarge their bodies so much that you wouldn't recognize them.
After a meal, ticks significantly increase their mass
Unlike mosquitoes that need just a few seconds to feed, ticks can stay on the skin for 3-10 days. With the onset of warm weather (from April to October), these tiny bloodsuckers become active and start looking for their host. Most reports of bites occur in May and June.
WHERE DO TICKS HIDE?
Ticks most often reside at the top of tall grasses where they wait for animals to pass by. They hide on the ground, grass, bushes, under piles of leaves, in the wild, or in lush greenery where there is no sun and where it is moist. They also climb into the treetops, but less frequently. In human-created environments, they lay eggs under stones, piles of rubble, bins, tires, firewood, barrels, holes covered with leaves, burrows of rodents and other animals, holes dug by pets or stray dogs, and in public areas.
LIFE CYCLE OF TICKS
The lifespan of a tick is about 3 years and they need only a few meals to sustain themselves throughout their life.
The usual breeding season is spring, and throughout their life cycle, they go through 4 stages:
- Eggs - Lasts two weeks. Females can lay several thousand eggs.
- Larvae - Upon hatching from the egg, the larva or baby tick must feed on its first blood meal and seeks a host (mostly reptiles and small animals like rodents), and this is the only meal they will need for their first year of life. Babies are miniature and hard to spot with the human eye. Ticks, when they hatch, have no bacteria. Only after the first meal do they become infected and continue to transmit bacteria and Lyme disease.
- Nymph - After the first meal, the larva transforms into a nymph that seeks a new host to secure a second meal. They are most dangerous during this period, as they are still small but also infected with bacteria.
- Adult ticks: After the second meal, nymphs fall back into the environment where they will become adult ticks. As adult ticks, they need one more meal. The cycle starts again.
For each of the growth periods, a tick needs just one meal. Sometimes they stay on the host through multiple growth cycles and sometimes, after each cycle, they seek a new one.
Ticks are carriers of many infections, the most well-known and dangerous being Lyme disease.
